Younger family dream

A Raisin in the Sun Response

Image taken from eNotes.com

A Raisin in the Sun by Langston Hughes portrays a few days in an African Americans life living in Chicago during the 1950's. They seem to be struggling to get ahead in life but all that changes when, Mama, receives a life insurance check for 10,000 dollars from the death of her husband. Her son, Walter, wants to use the money to invest into a liquor store thinking that would bring them much wealth, while Mama wants to use it on a down payment for a new house. Then Walters wife, Ruth, finds out she is pregnant and that turns everything upside down. Later in the play, Mama does use the money for a down payment on a new house. However, she only spent a small fraction of that money and gave the rest of the money to Walter to save money for his sister for college and save the rest of the money.  However, Walter invests all that money with his friend Willy. Willy skips town with the 6,500 dollars Walter gave him. That leaves the family financially hurt in a racist neighborhood.

This is one of my favorite plays. I have read this before in an earlier class and liked it even more then. I really like what they stand up for in this play. They leave their small house and move to a very racist neighborhood we're they are clearly not welcomed. Instead of taking an offer for more money they decide to stay because they wanted to teach Walter and Ruths child that it's easy to walk away but it takes a lot to face challenges.